The Christian right still can't deal with the reality of the Supreme Court decision which ruled that public school prayer is unconstitutional. But some members of the Christian right are undeterred by those silly Supremes and that's why there are periodic attempts, by Christian right politicians, to enact legislation mandating school prayer. As the mouthpiece for the religious right, it wasn't surprising to see, on the Fox & Friends weekly Catholic catechism class, Fr. Jonathan Morris discuss Indianal egislation that would allow the Lord's Prayer to be said in public schools. And while he didn't really agree with mandatory school prayer, he was able to preach the Christian right agitprop message about the evils of "government schools" and the need for school vouchers. Rather than making lemonade out of lemons, maybe you could say that he made holy water out of pond scum?
Alisyn Camerota reported that Indiana State Senator Dennis Kruse (who wants creationism taught in the schools) wants to bring school prayer back in the classroom because of what he feels are attacks on Christianity and introduced Fr. Morris. After saying that his opinion is getting his fans upset, he explained that he doesn't agree with "this legislator's approach." He then defined public schools as "government schools." (Yowza!!!! The phrase used by the right to describe public schools!!!!) Putting his best jazz hands in motion, he preached that "we have given to the government the role of educating our children" which he feels is "a bad idea." He added that if this is allowed, prayers from other religions, such as, OMG, the Koran, could be mandated by "government schools." (Pow, reinforcement of the right wing term.)
Tucker Carlson said he understood padre's point about the problem of schools pushing dogma; but "government schools" (Bam! third use of the agitprop term) "push a certain dogma every day. Textbooks, we did a documentary on it at Fox, push certain world view, a political view, in fact a religious view on kids and are never called on it." Fr. Morris agreed: "In a perfect world, where the government school" (Wow, #4) "totally supports our values, I would say that's wonderful." After saying that while he agrees with the legislator's desires to have prayers in school, he opined that it isn't "practical." He got very dramatic as he invoked the propaganda term for the sixth time and worked in the Fox propaganda message for the piece: "If we're paying for our kids to go to government schools, the government should get out of the education business and allow us to choose the school of our choice where our values can be presented."
After reading the legislator's statement about the need for a conversation on this, Fr. Morris agreed with the sentiment but again asserted that it isn't practical. He wasn't keen on Camerota's suggestion that schools provide courses that deal with all religions because "certain people mandate that certain things be taught in our schools." Jazz hands flying, he said how shocking it was that after the Newtown shooting they had prayer in a public school. (An inter-faith prayer service held in a school auditorium which is different from forcing school kids to say prayers before class.) He claimed that because of unnamed "activists," we'll have some "crazy stuff" if prayer is mandated. When Carlson said "Satanist prayer," Morris, spittle flying, added that people will say "there's no such thing as a time of silence because I'm an atheist and I don't believe in talking to anybody, it's craziness out there." He agreed with the legislator and said "it's totally unnatural and unhealthy to be sending our kids, eight hours a day, to a place where our values cannot be taught. That's why we need school choice."
Morris didn't mention the problem of having non Christian children having to listen to Christian prayer. He also, not so subtly, worked in the Fox patented be-scared-of-Islam card with his reference to the Koran. He didn't mention that the Protestant Lord's Prayer is different from the Catholic version. The bottom line is that mandatory public school prayer, in any form, is unconstitutional; but nobody mentioned that. Rather, Fr. Morris took the issue and turned it into a promotion of yet another agenda item for the Catholic bishops who would love vouchers as it would prevent them from having to close more schools. They would also help those "Christian" schools that teach creationism and other regressive ideas.
Good thing Fox & Friends is a Fox "opinion show" and exempt from being "fair & balanced" because it's a blatant propaganda vehicle for positions that the Catholic Bishops and the GOP right wing have in common. Meanwhile, poverty issues? The verbose Fr. Morris has very little to say about that! And "government schools?" You can tell that Morris is preaching to the right side of the choir!
If it weren’t fer the Preachin’ class there’d be no sinners!
Sorry! The Vatican demands all sexy little padres meet the most stringent standards of = Dumbass =. That way they ask no questions and don’t notice science has removed the Glutinous, Fat Emperor’s clothes.
isn’t ted nugent suppose to be dead or in jail by now? just curious…